Email is one of the most expensive activities of our days. Sending or receiving emails may not cost money, but it costs in other ways — both tangible and intangible.
It consumes time and energy and drains attention, decision bandwidth and cognitive processing power. It can also drain emotional energy that is expended when trying to determine what someone meant.
Because we read email in the tone that matches our current energy levels, email often results in misunderstandings.
In an ideal world, we would not use email at all.
Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to give up email, especially if you work in a corporate job.
But you can reduce the cost of email.
5 Strategies to Reduce the Cost of Email
(1) Set your email time boundaries.
Restrict the times you check email to specific times in your day. What those times are is completely up to you and depends on your industry and role. Maybe you can get away with checking only once per day. Or maybe you need to check once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
(2) Avoid checking email first thing in the morning.
Pro tip: whatever times you check email, don’t make one of those times first thing in the morning. When you check email first thing in the morning, even if you don’t reply right away, you’re now mulling your response, even if only in the background.
The more tabs you have open in your mind, the harder it is to sustain focus. It people really need to reach you, they should know alternate ways to get in touch with you.
(3) Communicate your boundaries.
Set up an out-of-office response that tells people when you check email and gives an estimate of when they can realistically expect your response. Also include this information in your email signature.
(4) Use email only for documentation, one-way communication, and information, rather than for conversation.
Email is great for documenting conversation points and conveying information. It is not a good tool for conversations,
A long back-and-forth is better addressed in person or on the phone.
(5) Before you send an email, consider the cost.
The emails that you send can be as much of a cost to your productivity as the emails you receive. Before you write and send an email, consider the to your nervous system and cognitive bandwidth of the open loop that will result while you await a reply.
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